Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno (29 September 1864-31 December 1936) was a Spanish Basque philosohper and author.

Biography
Miguel de Unamuno was born in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain on 29 September 1864, and he became a poet, author, and Greek professor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unamuno taught Greek and the classics, and he also made forays into the philosophy of religion. He held that belief in immortality is irrational, but nevertheless necessary to avoid desperation in the face of life’s absurdity. Only by believing that our lives will have an ever-lasting effect, do we find motivation to continue to live. If, on the contrary, we believe that everything will ultimately come to an end and nothing will survive, it becomes pointless to carry on any activity.

From 1900 to 1924 and from 1930 to 1936, he served as rector of the University of Salamanca, and he was removed from his two university chairs by the military dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. In 1936, he had a public debate with the fascist general Jose Millan Astray in which he denounced Millan Astray and leaders of the rebel nationalist movement. He claimed that the Spanish Foreign Legion's motto "Long Live Death!" was repellent and suggested that Astray wanted to see Spain crippled, and Unamuno would have been lynched on the spot had it not been for Francisco Franco's wife intervening. Shortly after this debate, he was removed from his university post and place under house arrest, and he died with a broken heart on 31 December 1936.